The JW Effect ? Lack of life planning

by Gopher 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Gopher

  As JW?s we were taught that the day of Jehovah was always near. We were to keep it close in mind. Those using the world were not to ?use it to the full?. And that we were always to watch for witnessing opportunities, since witnessing (not necessarily cultivating a good personality) was our primary emphasis in life.

  The constant threat of Armageddon hanging over our head was like a sword of Damocles. We were told that the world could end at any time. The world was passing away and so was its ?desire of the eyes?. Having a career in the world was like seeking employment at a store with a ?going out of business? sign hanging in the window.

  Did all this false sense of urgency disrupt normal life planning? To me, normally a person would think ahead and plan what they want to do with their life ? including their career, how they will plan to have a house, a family and money for retirement. It isn?t that JW?s did none of those things, just that for a lot of us these important decisions were approached in more of a random, haphazard manner. After all, with the end so near ("just around every corner"), any planning you did could soon all come to nought anyhow.

  Rather than planning ahead, we were instructed to "trust in Jehovah" and leave things in his hands. (Meanwhile the WTS corporation continued to plan for its own future, seemingly as if the end they wrote about in their literature was just some theory.)

  This to me a major "JW Effect". I no longer am bound to or seriously affected by the JW belief system. However, the haphazard, "take life as it comes" approach set me way behind in terms of what could be accomplished in life and in finances, just to name two.

  Are there ways that this "end time" belief affected you as a JW or affected JW?s that you know?
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  Atilla

  Well, duh, but atleast my parents still got me braces, explain that one.
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  Martini

  Gopher,

  I have to agree with you totally, where you say the JW 'end time urgency' made the less rational even less rational,when it came to life planning.

  My greatest regret is absolutely this point. Like many I suppose, oppportunities for material advancement were suppressed in favor of so-called kingdom interest! (read WT$ interests)

  Now like yourself I too am playing the catch up game with enormous odds against. With a young growing family and many unfullfilled dreams I don't know how best to invest my time. I feel the sand in my hourglass is gravely disporportionate between what I want to do for myself (that I could have done 25 years ago), and because of life's expenses what I have no choice to do than to continue with a job that does not pay ( considering my age) and that I do not enjoy.

  I am disgusted when I think how this religion has robbed us of precious TIME. So much so that I have a difficult time shifting my focus to the present with hopes that I can find some personal success. My only purpose at this time is to provide for my family.

  Good topic Gopher,

  Martini
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  Gopher

  Well, duh, but atleast my parents still got me braces, explain that one.

  My parents did too! And they did it in 1973, right before end came in '75, remember? I guess straight teeth would make for a more effective "witness"? I guess most of the ex-JW's on this board know this instinctively. It is just a bit of "mourning" on my part for lost opportunities, shared by Martini in his post. Maybe some JW's reading this will think a little bit about what the unceasing "end time" thinking is doing to them.
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  Gopher

  My greatest regret is absolutely this point. Like many I suppose, oppportunities for material advancement were suppressed in favor of so-called kingdom interest! (read WT$ interests)

  Martini, it is so disgusting how these corporate bigwigs at the WT Society asked for endless sacrifices on the part of their followers, even asking them to endure persecution. Meanwhile they seem to have such a nice life with admiring people whereever they go. Very much like the Pharisees of Bible times.
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  Scully

  That mentality is fostered at an early age, Gopher. Schooling (at least when I was growing up) only allowed for the bare minimum requirement to graduate. It was frowned upon to take "options" that would have been time consuming (since time was "better spent" in going door-to-door or other Spiritual? pursuits). The notion was that if you put any amount of effort into financial planning or choosing a career path was (perhaps still is) equated with Lacking Faith in Jehovah? and Putting Trust in This Old System of Things?.

  Consequently, I am about 10 years behind my colleagues in terms of job seniority and pay scale. I am similarly about 10 years behind my colleagues in terms of my pension. Mr Scully and I are about 10 years behind other couples the same age as us in terms of our mortgage and investments for our retirement.

  Stunting a person's ability to make their way through life or putting them at a financial disadvantage is a very subtle way of controlling people whose mindset includes a persecution complex - the need to feel that being disadvantaged in these and other ways makes them believe that they are "special" or "chosen" or as Having God's Approval?. It's an insidious thing, when people are made to feel inadequate before their Creator by virtue of their personal success. And I believe on a subconscious level, many JWs deliberately dig themselves into a hole like that so that they can feel that they are "better" JWs than those who are thought to be Materialistic?.

  Love, Scully
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  observador

  Martini,

  I am disgusted when I think how this religion has robbed us of precious TIME. So much so that I have a difficult time shifting my focus to the present with hopes that I can find some personal success. My only purpose at this time is to provide for my family.

  Robing people of precious time is, in my view, one of the worst things of this religion. I agree 100% with you on the above.

  Observador.
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  XQsThaiPoes

  I think you guys are half right, but biased. I know some of JWs 50's-60's that basically went to college came out and financially secure. I believe that the WTS was biased on its college ?ban? back then. To be a lawyer or accountant (something the WTS desperately needed) nobody cared cause you were "taking one for the team" so all these people are mostly lawyers. If you wanted to be a DR you were a faithless atheist until the blood wars of the 80's. Now that the WTS needs engineers and technicians? well you get the idea. Anyone notice how the WTS does not knock spending years learning to be a constuction worker who never goes out in feild services, but spends every free weeking build halls?

  I think what you guys fail to realize is JW education is like the managed economies of the soviet block. What ever service the WTS needs for free they will dump a plethora of encouragement for "skilled" brothers and sisters to buy out the opportune time and work for bethel or KSS.

  I think mostly blue collar JWs never worried about their futures, but even they did okay if they acted like they had a brain. I am sorry you feel cheated, but the only thing I saw is people that didn't want to go to college (mostly young men) that would have bit the bullet, and went anyway did not because they decided to buy the hype. Most of the women that where not exceptionally endowed enough to wrestle an old rich elder to Shulamite Maiden had to hit the books, or settle for house wife.

  Anyone that knows about 1975 should have no excuse for flying by the seat of their pants with out planning their lives. I think it is human nature to pipe dream if your life sucks. People who are JWs have the best pipe dream in the world. So while other people would just commit suicide, hit the bottle, or actually better themselves JWs can spend 50 years in the Matrix putting the kingdom first. I don?t think that?s the watchtowers fault. It is just human nature. In the middle age when life was crap many people became monks or nuns as a way out. Now that life is better there are fewer people interested in it, and ?wasting your life? for an invisible friend.
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  Scully

  XQsThaiPoes writes:

  Anyone that knows about 1975 should have no excuse for flying by the seat of their pants with out planning their lives. I think it is human nature to pipe dream if your life sucks. People who are JWs have the best pipe dream in the world.

  Yes, that is an interesting and valid comment. However, if that "best pipe dream in the world" didn't exist, would these people have actually done something else? Like go to college/university? Put money aside for retirement in 401Ks and RRSPs the way the rest of their non JW cohort did?

  So while other people would just commit suicide, hit the bottle, or actually better themselves JWs can spend 50 years in the Matrix putting the kingdom first. I don?t think that?s the watchtowers fault.

  If the Watchtower is responsible for "creating" the Matrix that entails Putting The Kingdom First?, it is most definitely the Watchtower's fault. Would the donkey run on the treadmill if it weren't for the carrot dangling in front of his face? If the carrot isn't there, would he not find his food somewhere else?

  Love, Scully
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  gods vigilante

  I have to agree with most everyone on this forum. I myself loved Science when I was little but because of Science believing in evolution, or how much time was needed to sacrifice oneself for such a career, that was a big NO-NO. There were many things that I wish I could've done and right now there's many things that I'm going to do. Lately, I've been writing a screenplay and hope to make it into a movie. I also want to be able to play more music. I also love to draw (as can be seen by my photo). I love to do many of these things, yet because of the "end coming" I had never had the time to be able to pursue these areas. So, yes I would say because of the Society's pressure to not be involved in worldy pursuits, I have been screwed. I'm still young and I'm gonna try to do everything I can to make up for it.

  And I'd like to say one more thing. And you can quote me on this if you want. "The WTS destroyed my imagination." And now I'm doing everything I can to get it back.